Utah’s redistricting showdown

Late Monday night, Utah became the latest state to be put in the national spotlight over its redistricting maps.

Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson sided with citizen-led initiative groups that filed a lawsuit against the state Legislature, accusing them of submitting gerrymandered maps in 2021.

“The core issue before the Court is whether the Utah State Legislature’s enactment of S.B. 200 unconstitutionally impaired Proposition 4, a citizen initiative designed to reform the redistricting process in Utah and prohibit partisan gerrymandering,” she said in her ruling, adding that the maps made in 2021 diluted the political power of Salt Lake County residents by splitting them into four districts and directed state lawmakers to “design and enact a remedial congressional redistricting map in conformity with Proposition 4’s mandatory redistricting standards and requirements.”

Robert Axson, chairman of the Utah Republican Party, said Gibson’s interpretation of both the Utah and U.S. Constitution “is a complete rewriting of what we have interpreted our Constitution to be over the last 100-plus years.” He noted that her interpretation was influenced by the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter last year when it sided with the plaintiff in the redistricting case.

“It’s a thumb on the scale that’s leaning towards judicial activism, rather than just the natural progression of things,” Axson told the Deseret News.

“For the very first time, suddenly, they had this belief that the ballot initiative process superseded the ability for legislators to engage. So that’s a new conclusion. We are a year into this conclusion,” he said. “So the idea that somehow this is an affront to the Utah Constitution, that people would have the audacity to trust their legislators, I adamantly disagree with, I think it’s an affront to the Utah Constitution (and) that these handful of justices and judges have thrown it away.”

But his colleague on the other side of the political aisle sees things differently.

Brian King, chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, told the Deseret News that the reason the interpretation is new is because the specific issue at hand hasn’t come up before the Utah Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court has never specifically ruled on this tension that exists between the Legislature’s ability to make law through its regular lawmaking process that we all understand and take for granted, and the initiative process that exists in our state Constitution, the people’s ability, through the initiative process, to make law and have it exist co-equally with the Legislature’s ability to make law,” he said.

In Gibson’s ruling, she wrote that both the U.S. and Utah Constitutions grant coequal and coextensive power to citizens and legislators, “and because redistricting is legislative, the people have the fundamental constitutional right and authority to propose redistricting legislation that is binding on the Legislature.”

Salt Lake County divided: Fair or unfair?

The state is expected to appeal to the Utah Supreme Court, which could ultimately result in the case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawmakers must pass a new congressional map by Sept. 24. If they do not, or if the map is challenged as noncompliant, plaintiffs and other groups can submit their own proposed maps to the court on the same day. All parties then have until Oct. 3 to file objections. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 9-14 to determine the outcome.

King said that “nobody looks at the maps that were passed by the Legislature for redistricting in 2021 and thinks that they’re logical or fair.”

Arguably, the most controversial aspect of the congressional maps is that they divided Salt Lake County, which leans Democrat in voting, into four districts.

“Anybody, including Republicans, looks at (that) and says, ‘Yep, we made those maps to do everything we could to ensure that Republicans were going to get elected, not Democrats.’”

But Axson doesn’t see it that way.

“Do a Google Image search of Illinois congressional districts and Utah congressional districts and tell me which ones you think are being gerrymandered and which ones are not,” he said.

“Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, they’re the largest city in the largest county in the state. Population-wise, their voice is being heard. And what’s interesting is Salt Lake City now uniquely has the benefit of having four congressional districts fighting for them. That’s a huge asset for Salt Lake City,” Axson said. “So claiming that Salt Lake City is somehow being treated poorly is only looking at it myopically, as though there’s like some partisan gamesmanship here, when in reality, our congressional delegation is there to represent the people of Utah.”